Apple and Crystallized Ginger Crisp

It's just about the middle of October and I've made apple crisp at least three times this season. It's a great dessert to prepare a few hours ahead and then pop into the oven while you sit down and enjoy dinner with some guests; By the time you've finished your meal and cleared the table, the aroma of apples and spices fill the kitchen and the crisp is almost ready to serve. Delicious.

Slow-Cooked Chicken Tagine

These past five months for me have flown by in a whirlwind of physical and psychological healing and growth (well, shrinkage, if I take into account losing that baby weight!) It's been wonderful and difficult and stressful, yet also the sweetest and most beautiful part of my life so far. Caring for a little human is so much harder than I imagined! I've discovered that I need way more patience than I am hard-wired to give. I've realized that my control-freak tendencies are stronger than I had anticipated. I've realized that I don't have enough time in the day to do the things that I really want to do that constantly makes me stressed and angry because I feel that if it doesn't get done RIGHT NOW, life will probably stop altogether and I'll be stuck with this mess of a kitchen/bathroom/living room/back yard/insert-a-space-of-your-choice-here FOREVER. It's enough to drive a person (my husband) crazy.

I'm going, are you???

Ok, ok. It's been a while since my last post about ANYTHING. Here's a little re-cap of what's been going on, CSA/garden/tips/adventure-wise...NOTHING. My garden is a catastrophe. I feel like I just barely make it to the CSA each week and all we do is grill, grill, grill veggies. It's been just too hot to cook anything inside, so we eat our veggies raw or grilled all nice and simple-like. Quite delicious, actually, but I digress. This post is not about how lame I've been all summer, but how cool I'm going to be in September because I'll be attending

THE FOOD BANK OF WESTERN MA MUSIC EVENT!!!

(sponsored by Strides Human Performance Institue)

The event, which includes music by Appalachian Still and with special guest Janet Ryan and Straight Up! is being held on September 11,2010 at 4pm, 411 Russell Road, Sunderland MA.

Tickets to the event are being sold at Strides Human Performance Institute, 39 Carlon Drive, Northampton MA and you can call 413-586-5000.

Proceeds go to the Food Bank of Western MA, which aims to help those in need of food assistance throughout Western Massachusetts.

You may choose your donation level when purchasing a ticket, but the minimum donation is $5.

What does $5 get you??
Music, as noted above. Food (b.y.o.b.). And most importantly, the knowledge that you're helping to provide healthy meals within your community and throughout Western MA.

Israeli Couscous with Beets, Garlic Scapes, and Orange

We just returned from a lovely week on Nantucket. I cannot say it was relaxing in the pre-baby sense, but it was a great adventure filled with lots of beach-lounging, quality time with one of our favorite couples, and plenty of food. The husbands decided the best way to celebrate our week on the island, and to put us all in the appropriate Summer Mood, would be to to choose two burgers from the Cheese and Burger Society and "bookend" our trip with burger-tastic meals. Grilling = Summer, so I couldn't have agreed with their idea more, but after chowing on two ridiculously huge burgers in six days, I'm beefed out. In case you're wondering, Night One's burger was The Gypsy (#9), and Night Six's burger was supposed to be The Casanova (#1), but the men ended up concocting a burger of their own after surveying what was left in the fridge from our week's stay.

If I had the time...

I'd take my mushroom and garlic scape pesto recipe, and I'd make fresh ravioli. I'd then cook them and toss them with my garlic scape pesto and serve them over a bed of sauteed spinach. Just sayin'.

Kale Chips...Really?

My sister and I made kale chips this weekend and we were not impressed. We did a little online research and came up with what we thought was a fool-proof recipe: kale, dressed with a drizzle of olive oil, salt, garlic powder, and fresh parmigiano-reggiano. We placed the dressed kale on cookie sheets and baked them at 350 degrees. We took them out after 13 minutes (we'd planned 15 minutes' baking time) and we had crispy, paper-thin kale. We each took a nice piece, popped it in our mouth and were shocked by the crunchiness. Kale chips, if nothing else, are fun to crunch. We each ate quite a few chips, but both agreed that the only reason we kept eating them was because they were salty. Not a very good reason, in my opinion. They looked like seaweed and, besides the salt, tasted like charred vegetables. We threw the rest of the chips out.

What's the big deal with kale chips? What did we do wrong? Is there any nutritious value to eating practically burnt kale?

Please, if you eat and enjoy kale chips, tell me what we did wrong, because I just don't get it...

Chard and Quinoa Salad

A week ago, I decided I'd like to make some Tebbouleh. We picked up a bunch of mint and flat leaf parsley from the grocery store, and my plan was to make enough salad to last me for the week as a side for dinner or as a snack during the day. Did that happen? No. It took me exactly eight days from when I purchased the herbs to actually have the time to make the salad. By that point, I had my greens from the farm in the fridge and I knew it was time to dive in to the stash. Luckily, the herbs were still fresh! My inspiration for this salad is a Tebbouleh recipe by Ina Garten that I found on Food Network.com. Instead of the traditional bulghur, I used quinoa. The addition of chard and carrots punched up the dish in color, crunch, and nutrition! The mint and parsley provide a refreshing flavor, and the tartness of the lemon is subtle and delicious. I recommend letting this dish sit for a day to allow the flavors to meld, but it won't be the end of the world if you eat it right away.

2010 CSA Season Has Begun!

We walked with our new baby to the farm on Friday for the first share pick up of the season. I almost let David go by himself, as I was feeling pretty tired, but I'm so glad I tagged along. How could I not visit the farm during the first week? The farm looked beautiful with rows and rows of lush green plants growing all around and the first flowers of the season. I picked delicious strawberries and a handful of dill, and David collected our vegetables. Can you guess what our share consisted of this week? Greens! Kale, bok choy, chard, broccoli, red leaf lettuce and another head of lettuce for which I cannot recall the name. Bibb, perhaps? We also received 2 radishes. Yes, you read that correctly. Two. We are splitting our share with another couple again this year, and since I planted a whole bunch of radishes this spring, we forfeitted our half of radish share. I love the csa's radishes and I know we'll be allowed to take many more before long, so I didn't really feel like we missed out on anything this week.

What will I be doing with these tasty greens, you might be asking? Good question. I'm not really sure. I think for this first week, we will be enjoying them in simple recipes (read: I didn't get my act together and I am suffering from a lack of creativity and energy these days, so salads are looking pretty good right now). We used the chard, combined with thinly sliced yellow onions, in a last-minute quiche for brunch over the weekend. Here's my recipe from last year. And here's a simple, fresh, and easy salad recipe.

As for my personal little vegetable garden, there are snap peas and lots of radishes that are looking (and tasting) glorious. I've realized, however, that if I ever want enough peas to use as the main ingredient in a dish, I'm going to have to plant many, many more seeds. I can't complain, though, as nothing beats eating fresh snap peas right off the vine! The onions are thriving, cilantro that had gone to seed last year is popping up in places I'd never have guessed, my beets are looking great, and the tomato plants seem to be happy and healthy! This is all great news, as I've been neglectful towards the garden with my limited time and list of to do's getting longer by the day.

Ok, on to brainstorming and researching for recipe ideas...

How Does My Garden Grow?

...Or rather, How doesn't it???

This is the third time in a month that I've sat down to write this post. My apologies for being such a slacker! I'm including all attempts at writing this, mostly for my own memories, and hopefully you'll enjoy it also. You see, I very recently had a baby, and my time has been consumed by all things newborn. I am amazed at how much energy it takes to care for such a small thing, and before I go any further, I want to thank our families for all their support and help during the past month. Thank you!

Follow-Up:The Red Dinner

After a bit of discussion over what our Red Dinner 2010 should consist of (Rack of lamb with a fruit glaze? Salmon and citrus salsa? Red Quinoa?), David and I agreed that we really wanted a simple dinner, and that we really wanted to make lobster. We figured we only think about making lobster once a year, so why not just go with it? Lobsters for every Red Dinner from here on out? Seriously, life could be worse, right?

The Red Dinner

We're not really into Valentine's Day. On occasion, we'll buy gifts for each other, but it's not a yearly 'must do' and we don't go out to fancy dinners, either; It's just too cliche for us. Don't get us wrong, however! We DO like to celebrate the fact that we are lucky to have found one another. A few years ago, David had the brilliant and romantic (at least I think so) idea to make a special Valentine's Day meal. The Red Dinner is a yearly occurrence, usually made sometime during the month of February, but not necessarily on the "big day". David conceives a menu of red-colored foods, starting with cocktails and ending with a tasty dessert. While I do not recall each year's menu, I've been served things like: delicious red wines, lobster with drawn butter, red potato salad, tomato, basil and mozzarella, rack of lamb, chocolate covered strawberries, and pound cake with raspberries, blackberries, and fresh whipped cream. I'm usually involved in the cooking process, since we enjoy cooking together but David designs the menu and does the shopping. We both think it's an exceptionally sweet way to celebrate the fact that we love being together, without feeling like we've been sucked into the Hallmark-ness of the day.

Dave's been tossing around a few ideas for this year's Red Dinner, which I think we actually might make on Valentine's Day. He's mentioned trying to use pomegranates in the meal, red velvet cake for dessert, and he's trying to come up with a special non-alcoholic red cocktail besides a shirley temple (since he makes me one of these a few times a week at this point!).

I wonder, what will The Red Dinner of 2010 consist of??

I'll keep you posted , but in the meantime, what would your Red Dinner menu look like?

A Little Secret

I just finished reading the Ribollita Recipe on 101 Cookbooks, that was posted in early January of this year. The author, Heidi Swanson, writes about opening her freezer, looking in, and wincing at what sees; 'a frosted landscape', 'petrified bags of cheese'...you get the picture. She had no idea what was in there. I, too, winced at her discoveries because I remember having a freezer that once looked like that, and it dawned on me that perhaps I should share a little secret of my own. (For the record, Ms. Swanson goes on to write about how, from the tundra of frozen darkness, she manages to pull all the ingredients for a Ribollita, which I find impressive.)

Northampton Winter Fare Farmer's Market: The Review

I made it to the first annual Northampton Winter Fare Farmer's Market this past weekend. Unfortunately for me, I wasn't able to get to there until close to the end of the event, and almost all of the goodies had already been purchased. I saw the empty bins of breads, the picked-over root vegetables, completely empty crates that held greens, milks, lovely and soft sheep skins, pickles, and other tasty morsels. I was kicking myself for not having gotten over to the market as soon as it opened, but even at 1pm when I arrived and everything was exhausted, the market was still bustling. We returned home with a large container of Maple Syrup from Sunrise Farms in Colrain, MA, and Dutch Gold cheese from Chase Hill Farm in Warwick, MA. Delicious!!

Had I been organized, I'd have brought a few jars of jam to barter. The bartering room was small, but smelled of pickled goods as soon as we walked in. There were jams, pickles, and I think even dried beans that I saw out of the corner of my eye.

I'm looking forward to next year's event, and hope it proves to be even better (and I swear I'll get there first thing!)

If you missed the Northampton Winter Fare, fret not...There is a Winter Farmer's Market at the Greenfield High School on February 6, 2010 from 10am-2pm.

A Bushel of...Meat?!

So, we decided to test out the meat CSA that the Austin Brothers farm offers (I mentioned it in the Summer Wind Down post.) We went halvsies with our friends who share our veggie CSA with us, and we chose the 20lbs of meat per month option...that means 10lbs per couple, per month...the meat will always be a combination of pork and beef, but we'll never know what cuts of meat to expect. This is daunting for me, because I'm not really a meat-cooking expert. I generally like good cuts of meat prepared simply, (or prepared fancy but made for me by someone else!), so this is going to be a challenge. The good part is that all the meat comes freezer sealed and frozen, so there's no handling of icky raw meatiness, and I don't have to use it all at once.

Here's what was in our first 10lb package:

• pork chops
• top round
• beef stew
• ground beef
• chuck roast
• short ribs
• beef shank
• sweet italian sausage

So far, we've only eaten the pork chops, which Dave quick-marinated in Teriaki sauce, and I pan-fried, so they were crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside. I served them with sauteed onions and homemade cheese pierogi that the women of Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in Easthampton, MA make each year. I buy a bunch and then freeze them for the year. (I'm not Polish or Catholic, but that doesn't mean I can't appreciate the tastiness of pierogi, right?) I also made a quick apple-cardamom preserve that I'm working on, but that's not quite ready for it's debut yet. Regardless, everything was delicious.

Throughout the late fall and winter months, don't be shocked if I'm posting meatier recipes. Our veggie CSA ends this month, which means posts will have to take a slight turn in direction to the carnivorous side...but it's not like I won't also be eating grains and veggies all winter.

On a side note, anyone know where I can get free-range eggs for not a million dollars a dozen? And chicken??? I'd love to find a way to purchase my poultry from a local farm...

Roasted Butternut Squash and Garlic Soup

We love butternut squash. I've tried multiple butternut squash soup recipes, some sweet, some spicy, and this version is my favorite. I've been making this version for a while, and it is a soup that David requests every year as soon as butternut squash is abundant, and I make it at least twice a season.

Winter Warmth Granola

Every winter I make lots of this granola. The smell of baking granola makes my home feel warm and toasty, and eating fresh, homemade granola makes me feel so much more healthy than eating any store bought brand! I eat it for breakfast, snacks, or even dessert, either combined with plain yogurt or milk, or extra fresh fruit. I've even been known to warm the milk and cereal up for an in-between version of cereal and oatmeal.

Northampton Winter Fare Farmer's Market

Just wanted to give you a head's up that the Northampton Winter Fare Farmer's Market will be this Saturday, January 9th, 2010, at the Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School, in Northampton, MA, 10am-2pm.

The Winter Fare is sponsored by the Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture, www.cisa.org. There will be local farms selling goods, workshops to attend, a soup cafe, and a Barter Market, where attendees can bring excess home-canned goods to trade.

Interested? I am!

Take a look here for more information.